BHUBANESWAR: BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik, OPCC president Bhakta Charan Das along with CPI state secretary Suresh Panigrahy came together in one frame, joining hands for an electoral fight against BJP.
The rare political sight played out at the State Assembly secretariat on Thursday as senior BJD leader Santrupt Misra and eminent urologist Dr Datteswar Hota, the two BJD candidates, filed their nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha polls.
This was for the first time in years that BJD joined hands with non-BJP political parties like the Congress and CPM to take on BJP and by doing so, dropped its long-stated equi-distance policy. “I am very glad to announce that our two candidates have filed their nominations for Rajya Sabha elections. I congratulate both of them. I am sure they will succeed,” Naveen told media persons.
While the BJD president asserted that both the candidates will win, the OPCC president said it is a new beginning for Opposition politics in the state. Earlier, the BJD president had appealed all the parties to support Hota as a ‘common candidate’.
Political observers believe that Congress support to BJD’s common candidate is a significant political development in the state. The two political parties have come together nearly after 26 years, when the BJD had dislodged Congress from power in 2000.
Describing it as a historic development, the OPCC president said that the understanding between the non-BJP political parties can continue even in panchayat and urban body polls scheduled next year.
However, Naveen was guarded in his reaction about this possibility. “Time always tells future history,” he told mediapersons when asked about an alliance between BJD and Congress.
Though numbers are in favour of BJD and Congress for the victory of Hota, the entry of former union minister Dilip Ray has opened the field wide open. The BJP with 79 MLAs and support of three Independent members in the Assembly will have 22 surplus votes for the fourth seat.
The BJD, which has 50 members including two suspended MLAs, will have 18 surplus votes. If all the 14 Congress MLAs and one CPM MLA vote in favour of Dr Hota, he will have no difficulty in winning. However, the internal conflicts in BJD and Congress can stretch the fight to the last day.
Two MLAs had not attended the Congress legislature party meeting on Monday while the two suspended BJD MLAs Arvind Mohapatra and Sanatan Mahakud are unlikely to toe the party line. These four votes in favour of Ray may take the fight to second preference and add a lot of uncertainty to the result till the announcement is made.